Sorry, I thought there were licensing problems with thetvdb and that’s one of the reasons we have to move to something else. Maybe you could elaborate on that so people understand why this new Agent is needed. Because one the main problem Plex has is with communicating with their customers. Or maybe that’s totally wrong, but I didn’t see any comment about when this was mentioned here.
P.S., I edited my original comment after you quoted.
It is true that TheTVDB has changed its terms for users of its database. But Plex has an agreement with TheTVDB for continued use of their data.
In parallel, Plex has been building its own database, which is fed by a multitude of metadata sources.
This is what the new agents use.
I will not go into the details, why this path was chosen. The “peculiarities” of each of the primary metadata sources certainly play a role here.
The old agents were based on the Python programming language. The Python version which is integrated in Plex cannot be easily updated. It was therefore decided to write new agents in C++ and let support for Python-based agents run out.
This is a huge bummer, and a downgrade IMO. Seems like the old agent extensibility was completely dropped in these new agents - unable to add additional agents to provide metadata info from other agents in a prioritized fashion. Am I missing something here? It is the “Plex way or the highway?”
Also, maybe I am reading too much into this, but it feels like this is one step closer to shutting down 3rd party agents, etc. Will there be any framework for 3rd party agent development going forward? The release of these new agents has already broken one great 3rd party tool - [REL] Lambda (Local Assets-Metadata Double Agent) for Plex Metadata export).
Problèms are even worse when your library is not in English
My Plex is set to French and now after testing the upgrade on a small library everything is garbage
no way I will upgrade my main library.
The default is Rotten (I know you can change to tmdb) why isn’t there an option to have all ratings ? Roten and tmdb ? and even imdb
I’m used to the tmdb ratings and tried Rotten and difference is really big on some movies.
it would be nice to have an option to have all ratings available
Most important : why do I have English metadata now in my Plex ? I know tmdb has all those datas in French ! Even worse I get some foreign langage !!!
Plex needs to get a secondary langage setting as a backup to know what to get as metadata when your main langage is not available !
tmdb has such a setting now on the page.
You have probably activated “Prefer embedded meta tags”.
This is ordering Plex to prefer the embedded metadata in your mp4 files.
Which might not be in your preferred language.
i do have this activated but I’m 100% sure all my data embedded in my mp4 files are French only
this is true for my movies.
“Prefer embedded meta tags”. has always be my first option as I do name all my movies myself.
i do not embed data in my th shows and there are many more problems then with movies.
Example : TV show test library (contains only half of the shows) I already have 175 tv show with genre “Sci-Fi & Fantasy”,
on my main library (old tmdb agent) only 1 (after checking this tv show has no translation in french)
I was wondering this too.
I have a whole host of tv based documentaries which have no match at all with the new agent. Others that have the wrong match.
“Fix match” seems to offer only stuff that’s in the super new Plex database. If it ain’t there and we can’t do a secondary agent search it seems we’re SOL.
And yes every single one of these shows did have a perfect match previously.
I will add that when it does work the new agent does seem pretty good.
If you were previously able to match them either to TMDB or IMDb, you can also achieve a match in the new movie agent.
Same applies to TheTVDB and TMDB for tv shows.
Look into “forcing a match” by including the IMDb ID, or TMDB ID, or TheTVDB ID into the folder names.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-movie-media-files/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/
Cheers Otto. Will give it a shot with the tvdb ids
But
You don’t mention here TVDB. Am I right I’m thinking fix match will only offer TMDB or IMDB results.
A lot of those shows I could only ever get to match to TVDB which if the Plex agent isn’t searching TVDB would explain why they’re not picked up and I imagine are they same shows I’m having issues with now and would make a lot of sense.
Sorry. I’m just trying to understand for going forward. You’re help is much appreciated.
It works with an ID from IMDb or TMDB or TVDB in the folder/filename.
Using an ID doesn’t trigger any connection to that provider, or cause it to be prioritized as a data source. It’s only used as an identification aid.
As Otto mentioned, Plex has a consolidated database with information from multiple sources. That database includes references to the IDs used by IMDb and TMDB and TVDB.
It shouldn’t typically be necessary to use any external ID; Plex’s recommended naming scheme is almost always enough.
The external ID is most useful for exceptions, such as movies with multiple possible matches. Or it’s useful when NOT using Plex’s naming, because the ID is sufficient to force a specific match.
Another alternative is .NFO files. Plex will extract an external ID from an .NFO file (at first scan) and use it for initial lookup.
How do I disable the message? I don’t want Plex screwing up my libraries - I also want the nagware to go away - has anyone figured out how to stop the message? Of all the things plex needs to fix, this wasn’t even on the first page. I’m also concerned about the library scan not staying ‘local’ - so all your content is being shared back to plex…
Appreciate all the feedback in this thread. I will avoid this “upgrade” (which sounds more like dropping a bomb on my library). Hopefully Plex’s software engineers will do some more work on this to allow it to more properly talk with the existing library to match things properly.
I’ve been thinking about subscribing to Plex to support them, but with this kind of software release disaster I think I’ll stay in my holding pattern for a bit longer.
So when I take the time to re-split all my merged and matched films that have two version, it will then stay that way forever and ever now that I’m on the new agent, right? RIIIIIIGHT? 
Side note, the giant adult library I had that I was scared to update and let plex run wild? I decided instead to rebuild it as a new library in a more organized way since when I initially built and set it up it was basically a hardrive dump and I’m better at plex now. The upgraded library agent is 100x better with adult matching than the old one. So far I’ve been able to use IMDB title numbers (tt0055928 for example) to match the few films it hasn’t matched. Some poster art is missing, which is a bummer but it’s obviously missing from the sources. I’m in the early stages, but so far I’m really impressed.
My question: when we find poster art is missing, is their a way to add it so that others in the future will have something?
Nope, can’t get this to work for some shows.
Example - I have an episode of a UK kids TV show called Magpie. The show appears on IMDB and TMDB but not TVDB. The new agent will not find it, even with {tmdb-4958} in the folder name.
The agent would rather offer me multiple shows called “maggie” than the actual name of the show.
I’m sure this is a lovely agent for all the mainstream TV shows and movies, but as soon as you start to move into the niche stuff for which you need your own media server (i.e. rare docos, obscure TV shows, short films), you need the ability to scan multiple data sources.
I don’t think these agents are ready for proper use yet.
With practically no data present for this show (not even an episode list or a lone poster), it comes at no surprise Magpie (TV Series) — The Movie Database (TMDB)
Yes, but it does exist on the TMDB, why isn’t there even a cursory match?
There isn’t even a season created. That’s practically nothing to which it can be matched.
You will have to “unmatch” it. It will stay that way.
Or you add at least an episode list to TMDB and help other users too that way.
There is a better entry on IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238791/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5
but that’s no use to me with the new TV Agent either
Plex has never used IMDb data for tv shows.
That didn’t change with the new agent.
